[se99tp]

How many more Bible verses modern scholars distorted like this one? How important is knowlegde of Jewish/Samaritan culture for the understanding of the Bible?

[SuzyQue]

Great point. I’m going to have to go re-read that right now.

[kindred]

Yeah, its always the men who fail in todays womanly society of feminist males.

[tang-soo]

Then the following phrase means what?

... and the one you now have is not your husband.

[Delta 21]

Folks will probly never learn that we really, REALLY suck at judging others. The inspired word says what it says. We humans are the ones that wish to twist it into our own neat little explainable version.

Joh 4:13 Jesus answered and said to her, Everyone drinking of this water will thirst again;
14 but whoever may drink of the water which I will give him will not thirst, never! But the water which I will give to him will become a fountain of water in him, springing up into everlasting life.

4:26 Jesus said to her, I AM! the One speaking to you.

[Delta 21]

..................as feminist scholar, Sandra M. Schneiders claims,.....................

[AppyPappy]

Why should I believe what it doesn’t say?

[lurk]

So she was really a very good person and shacking up with her latest dude was okay.

Alrighty then.

[bunkerhill7]

The word `husband`, N.T. Greek `aner`, is not used here- The word `andra` = man, male person, is the word used here.
The word aner, `husband` appears nowhere in this part of John 4.

[MosesKnows]

How many more Bible verses modern scholars distorted like this one?

We can never really know but questioning is a beginning.

For example, let me question the notion that Jesus was a poor man. Poor people don’t need a treasurer. The logistics of relocating a group of people and providing shelter and nourishment would have been costly. Perhaps that explains why Jesus needed and had a treasurer.

[kabumpo]

This is literal-mindedness at its most stupid. The five husbands represent the five senses. Much of what Jesus said was symbolic and metaphoric, and was understood as such at that time.

[Alberta's Child]

I'm not sure how "distorted" this passage is.

One of the key points here is that the woman is a Samaritan, and as such was an outcast in Jewish society at the time. This theme comes up repeatedly throughout the Gospels, and should not be overlooked in a passage like this. During this discourse the woman questions Jesus because he seems to be contradfcting well-established Jewish protocols regarding conversing with Samaritans and even showing up in Samaria as a "prophet."

At the end of this passage, Jesus stays in Samaria for two days and many Samaritans accept him as the Messiah. This is basically a rebuke to those "real Jews" who did NOT accept him.

[guitarplayer1953]

Next they will say the woman caught in adultery was not her fault or some other silly reasoning.

[tang-soo]

Clearly this women was an outcast from her peers - implied because of her past. In the 6th hour is not the time to come to the well unless you didn't socialize with the other women, who did so during the cooler morning hours. The 6th hour was the hottest part of the day. The morning gathering of water was a social event for the women of the area - unless you had reason to avoid the other women.

Thank God for her position in the community, because it provided her the opportunity to meet Christ.

[nonsporting]

How important is knowlegde of Jewish/Samaritan culture for the understanding of the Bible?

Little. One needs to read the whole narrative (the woman at the well), which culminates at 4:42. The Bible itself explains the significance of the narrative's elements. Verses 4:34-4:38 appear to begin something new, but we see in 4:39-4:42 "sowing and reaping". It all began by Jesus sharing the gospel with a woman of low class while resting at a well. He sowed. She sowed. She reaped. He reaped.

"...look at the fields for they are already white for harvest. And he who reaps receives wages and gathers fruit for eternal life, that both he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together." I am encouraged to open my mouth and share the gospel -- if not a reaping then a sowing.